New study on adoptive parents is pretty cool

The American Sociological Review has a new study (link in pdf) about the way that adoptive parents relate to their children. They found that parents who adopted children invested more time with them than heterosexual biological parents. While the initial results were skewed because adoptive parents are generally better off economically, adoptive parents still had an advantage after economic factors were controlled, albeit smaller.

Of course this is significant for the LGBT community. From the majority opinion in last year's marriage equality case in Washington:

"Limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers procreation essential to the survival of the human race, and furthers the well-being of children by encouraging families where children are reared in homes headed by the children's biological parents.

Because allowing gays to marry means that heterosexual couples will just start giving up their children for adoption. Ugh.

The study did not focus on GLBT couples; rather it included them in proportionately. But it further bolsters other studies that have shown the same-sex parents do just as well as heterosexual parents by getting rid of one mechanism by which the argument to the contrary is made. It also theorized the adoptive parents attempt to compensate for discrimination against them by spending more time with kids - something that sounds a lot like what I've heard from GLBT people in every field we participate in where we're not traditionally expected to succeed. That there is now a social scientific study that says that, with research to back it up, can only help LGBT people acquire rights in court.

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